Starting this year, middle and high school students in Paraguay can learn Korean as a second foreign language subject, according to the Ministry of Education.
Paraguay’s Ministry of Education announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with its Paraguayan counterpart officially adding the Korean language to its second foreign language list for schools. Amid growing demand for Korean studies in Paraguay due to the popularity of Korean cultural content, the Education Ministry has been supporting language teaching through Korean education centers in Paraguay, which has resulted in the number of middle and high school students learning Korean increasing from 1,900 students at 16 schools in 2017 to about 4,800 students at 23 schools in 2023.
As Korean will be recognized as an official subject starting this year and grades for it can be used to enter advanced schools, the number of schools that offer Korean as a second language classes is likely to increase, the ministry added.
The move is expected to open up more employment opportunities for local college graduates majoring in Korean so that they could be hired as teachers in Korea, according to the ministry in Seoul. Currently, there are a total of 42 Korean language graduates from Paraguay.
“We hope to see the nationalities of foreign students coming to Korea becoming more diverse following the spread of the Korean language in South American regions, including Paraguay,” a Korean Education Ministry official said.
